Violence in some Chicago neighborhoods puts young men at greater risk than U.S. troops faced in Iraq, Afghanistan war zones, study finds

Chicago police officers at the scene of a fatal shooting of a 24-year-old man last Sept. 2 in the 4400 block of West Jackson Boulevard in West Garfield Park. A new study describes the neighborhood during the COVID-19 pandemic as deadlier than a war zone. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere / Sun-Times)

For more than a decade, some people have used the term “Chiraq” — a mashup of Chicago and Iraq — to describe a city whose violence makes some neighborhoods feel like battle zones.

Now, researchers say they’ve found that some parts of Chicago are even deadlier for military-aged young men than what U.S. soldiers faced in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.